KEN JENNINGS, BECAUSE I SAID SO!: THE TRUTH BEHIND THE MYTHS, TALES, AND WARNINGS EVERY GENERATION PASSES DOWN TO ITS KIDS

Thu, 01/24/2013 - 7:00pm

Event address:

1200 11th St

98225-7015Bellingham

us

Remember all of those nagging warnings mom and dad gave you as a kid? "Don't sit too close to the television, you’ll go blind!" "Don’t swallow your gum, it’ll stay in your stomach for seven years!" "Don't crack your knuckles, you’ll get arthritis!" Did you ever stop to question them, or do you hear yourself giving those same warnings to your own kids and stop to wonder, "is this true?" Thankfully, New York Times bestselling author, trivia mastermind and famed Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings is here to tell us the truth in Because I Said So!: The Truth Behind the Myths, Tales, and Warnings Every Generation Passes Down to Its Kids. With sharp wit and an electric wry tone, Jennings dissects those ever-important warnings our parents nagged us about, separating myth from fact, with a dose of humor and a pinch of smarts.

Is it truly a bad idea to stand close to a window during a thunderstorm, go for a swim minutes after eating lunch, or run with scissors? Combining the Q&A tradition of Why Do Men Have Nipples? and the anti-helicopter parenting philosophy of The Dangerous Book for Boys, Jennings, armed with case histories and scientific findings along with the occasional experiment on himself (or his kids), humorously debunks a wide variety of parental edicts and tells us what we really need to worry about.

Written in an easy, conversational style and with a sense of humor Because I Said So! is great for parents who have questions about any of the nagging they do, and for non-parent adults (all of them were once kids!) who want to tell their parents, "I told you so." This is the "Aha!" you've been waiting for.

Ken Jennings was born outside Seattle, but grew up overseas where he watched Jeopardy! every afternoon. He first appeared on Jeopardy! in June 2004 and continued to win every show until November 30 of that year. In total, Jennings won 74 games and $2.52 million, both U.S. game show records. The streak made him a TV folk hero, and he appeared on shows from David Letterman to Sesame Street. Barbara Walters named him one of the ten most fascinating people of the year. Jennings' book, Brainiac, about his Jeopardy! adventures and the phenomenon of trivia in American culture, was a critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller, as was his hit follow‑up, Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks (2011). He is also the author of Ken Jennings's Trivia Almanac. In February 2011, he returned to Jeopardy! to challenge IBM's Watson. He lost, but his intelligence remains inartificial. Jennings lives outside Seattle, with his wife Mindy, his son Dylan and daughter Caitlin, and a deeply unstable Labrador retriever named Banjo.